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A DIVISION OF SOUND PUBLISHING
Community after-school programs hit a wall
Maple Valley jail options add up to one
BY ERIC MANDEL
BY KATHERINE SMITH
emandel@covingtonreporter.com
ksmith@maplevalleyreporter.com
Parents in the Black Diamond and Maple Valley areas may soon need to find a new place to house their children before and after school. Citing an erosion of funding over the years, the Greater Maple Valley Community Center announced Friday the youth afterschool program will be suspended effective Sept. 30. Additionally, the Black Diamond Community Center hopes to transition its own before and after school kids program to a new home, but communication struggles with the city have left its future up in the air. According to a GMVCC press release, 60 percent of the Maple Valley Community Center’s funding is generated through government and corporate/foundation grants. The remainder comes from a combination of United
The city of Maple Valley has narrowed its court and jail options to negotiating a new contract with Kent. The city’s current contracts, both with Kent, expire at the end of 2014. The city considered other options, including returning to an agreement with MAPLE Enumclaw, VALLEY or utilizing SCORE or Issaquah’s services. “It’s very important to us as a city that both services are close by,” City Manager David Johnson said. “Basically we don’t want to take an officer off our streets to transport…. we don’t want to do that if at all possible.” That effectively ruled out SCORE, and Johnston said that Enumclaw determined that Maple
[ more PROGRAMS page 7 ]
Celebrating Labor Day
Diamonds in the Rough performed on the Black Diamond Farmers Market float Monday at the Labor Day parade in Black Diamond. The float was constructed on the top of a 1937 Dodge Truck owned and driven by Jerry Avirett. Cortney Hunt, lower left, dances a Native American Fancy and Ricky Taff a Grass dance. Gomer Evans was the Grand Marshal. DENNIS BOX, The Reporter
Eagle Scout hopefuls build community garden BY KATHERINE SMITH ksmith@maplevalleyreporter.com
Tico Matthias and Austin Carney officially presented their Eagle Scout project — a community garden for the Community Meals Council soup kitchen — on Aug. 27. A ceremony adjacent to the garden honored the hard work of the two scouts to organize and build the project, as well as all the volunteers who gave time and
materials to the project. Both Matthias and Carney are juniors this year at Tahoma High School. Matthias explained while he and Carney were den chiefing — which means helping with a group of Cub Scouts — the den leader suggested that a community garden should be build, and the two young men ran with the idea. The land for the garden, which is located next to Mama Pas-
sarelli’s in Black Diamond, was in the works to be donated for a community garden and the boys took on planning and executing the building and the first planting of the garden. The process started last September and took over 300 hours of work. Both expressed relief that the garden had come together and was completed. “I was stressed out,” Carney said, to which Matthias agreed. “I think it’s pretty cool,” Carney said. “It’s an ongoing project.” The tentative plan, they said, is for scout troops to oversee care of the garden. [ more SCOUTS page 2 ]
[ more JAIL page 8 ]
Austin Carney, right, and Tico Matthia, center, talk with Rep. Dave Reichert in front of the community garden in Black Diamond. KATHERINE SMITH, The Reporter
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